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Hiya I've fallen ill so taking sick leave at the moment. I feel like crap but it's the second day of sick leave so I'll have to go back to work tomorrow or see a doctor again. Gonna take it easy today so that I can be somewhat well by tomorrow. I went to the fish store on Saturday. On...

very nice @Nikola… So by your dosing what is the weekly total values for No3 (?), po4 (5pppm right?), and Fe+micros (?)… At GH 5 your Ca and Mg levels are about 20ppm Ca and 10ppm Mg or something like that...

I been storing ro in Jerry cans 2 months at a time with no problems for like forever. Folks in the marine hobby store ro in huge plastic containers for many more months and keep the most delicate of corals.

Dunno if it's been mentioned, but here's a side-by-side comparison between duckweed, Frogbit, RRFs and some Spirodela polyrhiza. Sort of an intermediate between the two, if you don't want to deal with the MASSIVE root systems I have on my Frogbits.

I will contact him and let you know if I can give you his details. He is in East London stratford

For Netherlands the cost was 150$

Thank you John. Yes that was the original question. I appreciate sticking to the task at hand thank you.

Re the plants that are transitioning, which I think was the original question 🤔 leave them another week if possible then cut and re plant.

I get crystal clear water from 2 trays of K1 micro, 2 trays of 20ppi foam and 2 trays of 30ppm foam. No filter floss at all.

Thank you so much, that means a lot! In an ideal world, I’d love to do a book with pages like this for multiple different ‘types’ of aquarium that realistically (with a little artistic licence) showed the different styles (think Dutch, Iwagumi, black water, nano cubes, big predator tanks, the...

Yes it’s only there to get it full of BB so that when I rescape here in a couple of months and get rid of the sand and organic potting soil I have a cycled filter for my holding tank.

If you are looking at filter filtration only, then @hypnogogia is correct. You are not going to get much better than a good old-fashioned sponge. And the Biomasters can produce very clear and healthy water without filter floss, too. Do I spy a sponge filter in the aquairum as well?

Hmm this looks interesting, is getting it shipped across expensive?

Sponges provide very good biological filtration and usually better than more expensive ‘biological media’. https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/7-filter-media/

Hello! I have imported as individual, but they sell only big amount (my order was 1 kg). For exporting to EU you need certificate, which seller will attach to parcel. Arrived within 4 days.

Hi appreciate this is from a while ago? But I can’t figure out how the importing. Is it only for business's or can an individual import for themselves for personal use.

Sorry I’m not sure why I put gray, I believe I meant the original sponges HAHA. I removed them because I wanted better biological filtration than the sponges. The reason for adding filter floss is that I am getting some smaller stuff sneaking through that I want to eliminate and it’s easier...

Thank you. I’d checked that it was smaller than the file size limit before uploading though - I think it was 1.5mb.

Very interested in your point 3 @Scmelik. What were the grey sponges you talked about? Oase are usually blue and red. What made you remove the sponge, and also why are you considering filter floss in the top tray?

Let it grow out. You don’t need to trim yet as you don’t have enough plant mass for the amount of light and nutrients in your tank (would be my suggestion).

I am also not trying to solve my GSA issue I have gotten that ironed out and it will get better over the next couple of weeks. I was simply asking if I should trim a plant that young and still acclimating or if I should let it continue to grow out a bit.

When measuring KH (with a test kit) we aren’t truly measuring the carbonate hardness of the water, but the buffering capability of the water which can be affected by things other than carbonate, such as phosphate. At which point the CO2/KH/pH relationship breaks down. Get a drop checker and you...

I was running much higher up until 2 weeks ago when I dropped it to 70% and the GSA has drastically improved. The issue was I didn’t totally understand that if I was going to run my light that high is that my C02 and nutrients needed to follow and I didn’t. I feel like I could run this light...

The illustrations are really good, they would make be great in fishkeeping book for children to learn, and grown ups for that matter

Image could be too large! I took a Screenshot and loaded it that way;)

That’s not an accurate way of checking your CO2 levels.

Floating plants will suck up excess nutrients. Water lettuce and Frogbit are hungry plants. The AI prime at 70% might be a bit bright for your current plant load but others more familiar with the light may be better placed to advise.

One thing to be aware of with distilled or RO water when storing it is that if exposed to air it will rapidly suck up CO2 and produce H2CO3 (carbonic acid) thus drop the pH considerably which could cause a reaction with the material of the container and release unwanted compounds (often toxins)...

I regularly check my ph and kh and use the chart to know where my C02 is at, I rarely drop below 28ppm of C02

You could try different stems a few Hygrophilla sps fast growing to get algae reduced, and Amazon Swords for region specific .Agree invest in a drop checker-consistent CO2 is needed to benifit the plants and safety for fish and critters like shrimp,try more water changes

Hello 👋, welcome

How is this lovely tank going?

Mike, Originally there was many more stems in the back but because of the GSA I ended up having to remove them all. My original plan for this tank was to be a South American themed tank with only plants and fauna from South America so from my research I could come up with any moss or crypts...

Yeah, I think there's something to the rich substrate/lean water column combo too, at least for tanks with slower growth, which would include even the happiest low tech tank. Plant roots have so many tricks to extract what they need from the soil, where foliar feeding is passive.

Thanks @Scmelik for your answers. I’d suggest you massively increase your plants in the tank. The drift wood you have is begging for moss and Anubias. Some Echinodorus in the left back to use the height. Cryptocorney wendti for the fore to midground. Also fill up the foreground with more of...

1. Size of tank in litres. 110L 2. Age of the set - up. Setup up as a planted tank Sept 23 (so still a very young tank) 3. Filtration + Media/Sponges. Oase Biomkaster Thermo 350, all of the gray sponges have been removed and Ehime Substrat Pro is filling all of the trays. (Next water change...

Both these scapes were grown low-energy in a mix of 1:1 Westlands aquatic compost and Westlands Irish moss peat, with a couple of large handfuls or horticultural grit. The depth of the soil was generally around 30-40mm. The soil was deeper in the scape immediately below; it was banked to about...

Hi all, The variability is the issue. Potentially you can do the same with <"sediment nutrients"> as you can with water column ones, all the way from <"Triffid to running on petrol fumes">. That is why I like Oak (Quercus spp.) or <"Beech (Fagus spp.) leaf mold">, it is going to add <"slow to...

Will look forward to seeing the development of this. Looking good so far:)

Exactly. Balancing the type and amount of organic matter seems to be the critical for success with a dirt tank, but there's an uncomfortable amount of guesswork because the material is so variable and can lead to uneven outcomes. That's why I initially went with potting soil, actually - not...

Hi all, That is an advantage of a dry salt straight away, you aren't paying for any added water. I'm <"proud of it"> and it works. I want people to keep planted tanks, both because I like plants (I'm a botanist by training), but also because they make fish keeping a lot easier and more...

Plus this information: 1. Size of tank in litres. 2. Age of the set - up. 3. Filtration + Media/Sponges. 4. Lighting and duration. 5. Substrate. 6. Co2 dosing or Non-dosing. 7. Fertilizers used & Ratios. 8. Water change regime and type. 9. Plant list + When planted. 10. Drop Checker. 11...

Thank you very much for your answer. I'm on my way to do a 50% water change and will follow your advice : I will aim for 50µs. It will take several WCs but I don't want to shock my fish. I actually have read many of your posts on the duckweed index and it seems to be the smartest method when...

Thank you :) Do you find the 600 is big enough for your tank? Is it a Rio 180l?

I’ll give a few different species a try see what happens. I want to create two moss walls on hygrolon panels. With vining plants crawling up the crevices.

Hi all, It should have done, conductivity is a linear scale. I still use a conductivity datum, although I don't actually <"measure conductivity regularly"> any more. Exactly that. If you stabilise pH you no longer have soft, acid water. Yes, probably to 50 microS, you can carry on with the...

Thanks for your answer. I didn't take a picture of the tank before the cleaning/rescaping. Afterwards it looks like this: Cheers

Hi Darrel, thank you for the reply, Yes I expected a rise in conductivity, but I didn't expect it to be this high with the second dosing. I would have thought that dosing 5 ml would result in an increase of 1.6x the result of dosing 3ml. I use JBL aquadur wich comes in the form of a powder. I...

Hi @Scmelik Thanks for posting the photo. It looks like you need a lot more plants to help stabilize the tank. Planting heavily with fast growing stem plants will help. I'd fill the background with tones of Rotala. Copy and Paste the list below...and add your answers to each number on the...

This is where it’s at currently. I had a lot of problems with GSA and GDA, and like most people who are inexperienced I immediately assumed I had a nutrient problem. Which now after doing hours and hours of research and reading a bunch of Tom Barr’s philosophies I realized it was a balance issue...

It'd be helpful if we had a little more info inc. a FTS. https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/please-read-the-guidelines-for-algae-help.60672/ https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/algae-problems-read-this.58460/

I made a “uk native wildlife pond” last year and it went through lots of unsightly phases including … Brown murk=will settle Green murk=add daphnia Hair algae=more plants, inc watercress Dog bath=hosepipe And now it’s clear, plants have grown in and full of life , newts, frogs, tadpoles...

Hello everyone, I have a 90l superfish tank, no CO2, no fertilisation apart from the fish food, low lighting (superfish led 35w dimmed at 15%). The growth is slow but I don't mind, the problem is that most of the older leaves are covered in a black/greenish algae (see photo) It's easily...

Hi all, Welcome to UKAPS and nice tank, nice fish. You will get some rise in conductivity, plants take up nutrients as ions, and it is those same ions that conduct electricity. A <"relatively small addition of salts"> causes quite a large increase in electrical conductivity. I'm going to say...

Hi all, I think that is probably the important bit, the bark is <"nearly all lignin"> and that has a very low <"Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)">. The problem with the domestic green waste compost is that <"it isn't fully decomposed"> (although some of the fixed nitrogen will have gone)...

Anyone use the Chihiros hanging kit with a 120cm light? As looking online the brackets don't screw into the light, this slightly concerns me as would it be possible to knock the wires and the light fall into the tank?

Nice work!

There's spaghnum for sure, but the other one i think is just plain java, not entirely sure

Hello to everyone, I would appreciate your insight on a situation I can't explain. I have a 54 liter tank, with a fairly big plant mass (see photo below), no CO2 injection and medium light. I keep fundulopanchax nigerianus killifishes in there so I try to keep the water as soft as I can. I...

Bienvenue !

Once the darkstart was complete it was time to unwrap and get it planted. Order was placed ready for the weekend, all plants were in-vitro. Full plant list: Micranthemum tweediei 'Monte Carlo' Eleocharis pusilla 'Mini' Elecocharis acicularis Marsilea hirsuta Marsilea minuta Pogostemon helferi...

Just a good layer of capping substrate, 30-50mm. I often used pool filter sand, which worked very well. Some terrestrial soils and composts do solidify in the process of becoming aquatic sediments. I think what happens is the organic matter breaks down and is used as nutrients by plants. This...

Hello and welcome :)

welcome

Welcome🙂

Welcome to UKAPS

What moss are you having success with?

Welcome! :wave:

Welcome! :wave:

Hello there!

Welcome

I use a more solid grid than Tim shows; his looks better. I haven't had problems with the plants rooting through it. My two problems were using zip bags that were too large, and having bags flapping around, and the fact that I think the clay powder, which I didn't bake, solidified with the John...

Hi can you post a picture of the whole tank please? We just need to see the context. So far things seem to be heading the right way for the tank.

I’m a mesh bag user with terrestrial soil. I have zero issue with plants reaching the soil and penetrating the mesh. I will say that I did not stuff the bags out, and I also did add some grit to the soil so that to potentially cope with anaerobic conditions. I copied @Tim Harrison example of...

I use mesh bags with John Innes Number 3 / old substrate (aquasoil / sand). I sometimes add fertiliser tabs.I initially bought bags with plastic zips from ebay more recently I use the mesh fruit bags that lidl sell. I cap them with enough sand to plant in. It works wonderfully. Plants root into...

I planted these Rotala Narrow Leaf Sp Red stems on April 4 and it’s been growing really really well. It’s started converting to submersed growth nicely. It’s starting to send out some side shoot off the main stem on a couple of stems, and those shoots are getting to be an inch and in a couple of...

Do you secure that down somehow or just use the cap to hold it down?

The answer is yes lol, not constantly, but they get little bursts of activity, usually when there are flies present haha

Welcome :)

Something like this. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gardman-Gr...ding+gardmans&qid=1565549090&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Thanks for sharing that :) Do you construct the divider sheets yourself, or buy them pre-made? And do you attach them to the tank, or just keep them in place using the substrate?

Oh, that's smart! What kind of mesh divider? Knitting mesh? Or something bigger like egg crate? And yeah, I've done mesh bags with lava rock to create levels, but that definitely felt different as there's still enough substrate for the roots :)

Hi everyone I just wanted to introduce myself, my name is Lee and I'm from Swansea.

The Three-Eyed fish sees everything.

I’m in! 👍🏻

Salut!

Bienvenue or bienvenu!

Well an algae got to breath 🤷🏾

Welcome 🙂

Welcome! :)

Hello ! I apologise in advance for my english. As the title states, I'm from france. I'm fairly new to planted aquarium (first aquarium in september 2023, I own three now). I can't find any other forum than this one that is so thorough on the topic of plants, fertilization, water chemistry...

Nah, won’t work, all your fish will end up like this: You know I’m joking right?! :lol::lol::lol:

I was going to ask if they were very active....

Ribbit!

I think my BBA is pearling 🤪

I don't think I'd opt to use mesh bags filled with actual soil, maybe AS. But only under around 40mm of capping substrate. I've usually used a plastic mesh divider with 1-2mm gaps. Roots naturally pass through it unhindered via a process known as geotropism. I've used filter bags and nylon...

Hello 👋, welcome.

50 bar input and 1.5 bar output on my pressurised system, equates to 750psi input and 21psi output.